In 1999 I read a short story that forever changed how I interpret the world. It was a story called Lose Now Pay Later.

                            _____________________________________________

Set sometime in the not too distant future, two girls are walking through the mall and find a new dessert shop, called The Health Brigade, thats open. There are no people inside, just sleek and shiny machines dispensing these frozen yogurt like treats called Swoodies. The store is completely automated and all of the desserts inside are free. They try the Swoodies and find them to be the best, most tantalizing thing they have ever tasted. And addictive.

They go back the next day to find a line around the corner to get these desserts because word got out around town that they are so good. And free. More and more of these automated Health Brigade shops open up all around their town to keep up with demand. Yet still no people are seen who actually work there and the desserts are still free. No one seems to be bothered by this. 

After leaving the Health Brigade dessert store for their daily visit the girls both notice they're starting to get fat, and everyone in town is starting to balloon up too. One of the girls lamented that she wished there was an easy way to eat all of the Swoodies she wanted and not gain weight. 

Then as they're walking through the parking lot they see an tall freestanding booth, like an upright tanning bed, and a thin, short, odd looking woman standing next to it. When they asked what the device was, she aloofly stated in an unusual voice that it was a "slimmer", you step inside and lose unwanted fat. $1/lb. 

The one girl's skeptic side spoke to her and reasoned that there is no easy way to lose weight. Pills, wraps, fad diets etc. don't work. So neither could stepping into a machine. The attendant could not care less if she patronized her booth, apparently she didn't need their money and sometimes that says the product is that good. This was apparently the Hermes of parking lot kiosks.

But eventually the girl paid $5.00 and found that after stepping in the machine and then stepping out a minute later she was 5lbs lighter. Then her friend tried and they think they found a loophole: Eat all the free crap you want, go to this booth, lose the fat and pay the weight loss fee. 

When they go back to the booth the following day after their daily Swoodies binge the attendant pricks their wrist and makes a tiny, permanent blue dot. The attendant says for safety they need to make a mark on the wrist for every 10lbs lost from the machine. And after a short while the girls notice that most people around town are starting to get a "bracelet" of these tattooed dots around their wrist as more of these odd booths with even odder attendants start opening up.

Still no one questions why the desserts are free, why no one is running these health stores, or how these weight loss machines work. 

The story closes with the narrators brother's concern over what he is seeing happening in their town. He thinks what is going on is strange, and that maybe these Swoodies shops and Slimmer booths are connected. He said that they are run by aliens who are harvesting human fat from the Swoodies, collecting it in their Slimming machines, and then sending it to their home planet to use as fuel. And those little dots are markers to let the aliens know whose fat is becoming less viable, as the more fat taken the less efficient it is for fuel and eventually those people with prominent "bracelets" will be rounded up and discarded as waste. 

The sister dismissed her brothers concerns as stupid. Why wouldn't the Health Brigade tell them to stop eating Swoodies if they weren't good for them? And if there were aliens, surely they would know that a human being would never sacrifice their dignity and freedom just to be able to eat dessert and still be attractive. And she can stop eating Swoodies and going to that machine whenever she wanted. 

And then she admired the delicate little tattooed bracelet on her thin wrist and probably went back to get more dessert. 

                         _____________________________________________

 

The above story changed how I look at a lot of things but one thing that it changed for me was how I look at the cost of vanity. There is no such thing as a free lunch, as the adage goes, and here that means that cosmetic procedures cost more than their sticker price. They will cost you your youth.

The biggest up and coming cosmetic procedure is buccal fat removal, or cheek reduction surgery. If you ever wondered how celebrities suddenly got a sculpted look to their face, it is because of this procedure. The procedure simply takes out the fat pads in the lower parts of the cheeks, giving a hollowed look that is associated with top fashion models and heroin addicts. 

Hollowed cheeks and prominent cheekbones are the hallmark "Model Look"

 

Image of a patient before and after getting buccal fat removal surgery

 

Buccal fat removal targets those who are unhappy with the roundness of their face, those who have a "baby face" and would like to achieve a more mature look, or want a more sculpted appearance.

 

Buccal fat removal is therefore targeted primarily at younger people, usually teens to early 30s who want that model look, but their biology is getting in the way. 

The problem with the procedure is that it removes the very thing that keeps your youthful appearance: the fat in your cheeks.

Since most of the people who get this procedure are young, the results may look great now. But when you age, you naturally lose volume in your face. And the buccal fat pads keep that youthful look naturally into your mid to later years. Without those fat pads the face will get a gaunt, saggy and aged appearance. And then that causes people to get filler which distorts and ages the face even more. 

If you consider older people who look younger than their years, one thing they have in common is a naturally fuller face. Elderly people with a little (healthy) weight on them look much younger than those of the same age who are thin, and this is because fat in a matured face makes a younger appearance. 

Twin on the right weighs more than her twin on the left. The fullness in her face from added facial fat is among the factors that contribute to her younger appearance.